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I was watching TV last night and there was a program on talking about Dubai and their recent accomplishments along with their view of the future of Dubai. Many of Dubai's projecs were praised and many overseas are amazed by the developments and achievements of what Dubai has done. At the end of the program they had wanted to conclude why Dubai was doing all of this and how they were expected to pay for all these things in the future. Apparently they had done an investigation on Dubai's oil reserves and Dubai only holds enough oil to last till 2015 max.. I have a feeling that their is going to be some major taxes coming up for Dubai and with this thought in mind it looks like there will be no freehold property in Dubai but rather based on a Leasehold rather then Freehold. It is no wonder that this has taken so long and been delayed so many times with no Freehold in sight. I find it odd that an Island (Palm Island) was ready before the constitution was which allowed foreign ownership or basically Freehold. This program lasted for 1 hour last night and the two main points of teh program were how DUbai advanced so quick and what the Governments objectives really were when their oil finished in 2015.

Stylinexpat wrote:I find it odd that an Island (Palm Island) was ready before the constitution was which allowed foreign ownership or basically Freehold.

From 2002 till 2006 foreign ownership was sort of something that depended on the word that Sheikh Mohammed gave allowing foreigners to own property. In 2006 this was formalized by a law. Yes it was risky business to own property back then but people who took the risk made a really high gain. So i am not sure what do you find odd ?

MaaaD wrote:

Stylinexpat wrote:I find it odd that an Island (Palm Island) was ready before the constitution was which allowed foreign ownership or basically Freehold.

From 2002 till 2006 foreign ownership was sort of something that depended on the word that Sheikh Mohammed gave allowing foreigners to own property. In 2006 this was formalized by a law. Yes it was risky business to own property back then but people who took the risk made a really high gain. So i am not sure what do you find odd ?

Freehold ownership in Dubai is for real as MaaaD says.

I bought 2 units in Dubai. Both units are part of Saba Tower II. Until now I have not seen anything from the developer and government that says it is Freehold. If you have Freehold property then perhaps you can post a copy of the contract issued by the developer and government because as of now to my knowledge, no one has one. My developer tells me that the Government has not notified them as of yet as to whether projects will be Freehold or LeaseHold.

For your information Freehold ownership is most certainly happening, however it is only for selected Developers, Emaar, Nakeel, Dubai Holdings & Limitless all the rest are 99 year leasehold.

sage & onion wrote:For your information Freehold ownership is most certainly happening, however it is only for selected Developers, Emaar, Nakeel, Dubai Holdings & Limitless all the rest are 99 year leasehold.

That's 99% correct. Some companies such as Dubai Properties sell land to developers that is freehold, which in turn means the apartments built on this land are also freehold.

^ian^ wrote:

sage & onion wrote:For your information Freehold ownership is most certainly happening, however it is only for selected Developers, Emaar, Nakeel, Dubai Holdings & Limitless all the rest are 99 year leasehold.

That's 99% correct. Some companies such as Dubai Properties sell land to developers that is freehold, which in turn means the apartments built on this land are also freehold.

As far as I have been told, the land is sold as freehold to the Developer, such as DAMAC, and then they are only able to offer leashold as only one name/company can be registered as the owner with Lands Dept. The Freehold ownership can only be determined by Lands Department.

sage & onion wrote:

^ian^ wrote:

sage & onion wrote:For your information Freehold ownership is most certainly happening, however it is only for selected Developers, Emaar, Nakeel, Dubai Holdings & Limitless all the rest are 99 year leasehold.

That's 99% correct. Some companies such as Dubai Properties sell land to developers that is freehold, which in turn means the apartments built on this land are also freehold.

As far as I have been told, the land is sold as freehold to the Developer, such as DAMAC, and then they are only able to offer leashold as only one name/company can be registered as the owner with Lands Dept. The Freehold ownership can only be determined by Lands Department.

Each individual apartment is registered with the lands department as a freehold unit. I'm certain most of Damac if freehold, but it is still a grey area with lots of confusion.

There are specific zones setup for what is Freehold and registerable as Freehold and what is not. Where they have been lax about this is making it absolutely clear to the public.

More shall become clearer sooner, as I have heard it is on the agenda to clear this confusion up. There's also a lot of confusion about Freehold V Freezone.

^ian^ wrote:

sage & onion wrote:

^ian^ wrote:

sage & onion wrote:For your information Freehold ownership is most certainly happening, however it is only for selected Developers, Emaar, Nakeel, Dubai Holdings & Limitless all the rest are 99 year leasehold.

That's 99% correct. Some companies such as Dubai Properties sell land to developers that is freehold, which in turn means the apartments built on this land are also freehold.

As far as I have been told, the land is sold as freehold to the Developer, such as DAMAC, and then they are only able to offer leashold as only one name/company can be registered as the owner with Lands Dept. The Freehold ownership can only be determined by Lands Department.

Each individual apartment is registered with the lands department as a freehold unit. I'm certain most of Damac if freehold, but it is still a grey area with lots of confusion.

There are specific zones setup for what is Freehold and registerable as Freehold and what is not. Where they have been lax about this is making it absolutely clear to the public.

More shall become clearer sooner, as I have heard it is on the agenda to clear this confusion up. There's also a lot of confusion about Freehold V Freezone.

Very much agreed,confusion reigns, although for villas it all seems ok.

Everything until now seems. Ihave yet to see a Villa owner or apartment unit owner who is a foreign expat show his freehold ownership title of either the land with the Villa or the Freehold ownership of the Apartment unit he or she had bought. Hopefully it will be Freehold but as of now it is just speculation. No one has anything in writing of Freehold as of now. If you know of a non-local National who has bought an Apartment or Villa and has a freehold then I would love to see a copy of that contract posted here.

Stylinexpat wrote:Apparently they had done an investigation on Dubai's oil reserves and Dubai only holds enough oil to last till 2015 max.. I have a feeling that their is going to be some major taxes coming up for Dubai

Latest GDP figures show oil & gas contribution to Dubai's economy is only 6% and shrinking, running out won't fundamentally change things, they thought of that 20 years ago hence the diversification strategy.

Abu Dhabi has oil for the next 100 years on the other hand.